Judge Spalding returned fro
Columbus last evening (Tuesday) having concluded the arguments before the
Supreme Court upon application for a writ of Habeas Corpus at noon yesterday.
The Court took all the papers, authorities, briefs, &c., an went into
consultation, and it is expected their decision will be made up to-day and
pronounced at 10 o’clock on Thursday (tomorrow) morning.

The arguments have been
made in full by Messrs. Belden and Swayne, for the Government, and by Judge
Spalding, for the Relators, so that it is understood there is nothing more to
be said and if the Court grant the writ it will be final, and will be for the
discharge of the prisoners.

The Application
for Habeas Corpus in the Rescue Cases.

The argument before the
Supreme Court was concluded yesterday at noon, and the Court adjourned to
Thursday morning. Noah H. Swayne Esq., on the part of the U.S. Marshal,
occupied the forenoon with an able, lawyer-like argument, citing the cases in
which the fugitive slave law had been held to be constitutional by both federal
and State Courts and arguing that with so many decisions in its favor, and but
one, the recent decision of Wisconsin, against its constitutionality, the
question ought to be regarded as settled.

He argued, also, the
question of constitutionality, de novo,
without regard to adjudications, and held that the constitutional provision,
that fugitives should be given up, granted to Congress all the powers requisite
to carry out the provision. While he claimed that the law was constitutional,
he did not assume to defend the policy of enacting so stringent a law, nor deny
that great wrongs might grow out of it; wrongs which would be insufferable.
Such was not yet the case, and therefore there was no such case for this Court
to consider. When that emergency arrived, the emergency itself, as was always
the case, would beget the proper remedy; the right of revolution was the only
resort of the people when their wrongs from this law become intolerable.

Judge Spalding, for the
applicants, occupied but about fifteen minutes in a forcible and eloquent
rejoinder. He referred to the importance of the case now before the Court,
involving the liberties of thirty-seven citizens of Ohio, while all the cases
cited by the opposite counsel were raised by the capture of some fugitive slave
who was already far on his return South when the question of constitutionality
of the law was adjudicated, and urged the Court to give it that consideration
that its consequence demanded.

He argued with great force
that if wrongs might grow out of the execution of the law that would justify
the resort to the remedy of a revolution, it was of the most momentous
importance that the resources of the Courts should be carefully investigated
and all legal remedies exhausted, before abandoning the case to so terrible a
remedy as revolution.

He referred to the standing
of the citizens now incarcerated in the jail of Cuyahoga County, including all
classes, clergymen, professors of colleges, doctors, lawyers, merchants and
others representing the best people of the State; that this was no case lightly
to be disposed of by our prejudice or indifference toward an inferior race, but
one involving the liberty of a large number of the first citizens of Ohio; and
alluded to the announcement in the newspapers that the United States war
steamer Michigan had been ordered by the President to the port of Cleveland to
overawe the citizens with her guns, and provide a prison ship for these
captives beyond the reach of process from the State Courts.

The case has assumed a
momentous importance. The fundamental principle of the law, making a crime of
an act which is an honor to humanity, and which in such circumstances as
existed at Wellington can hardly be avoided without debasing human sentiment
lower than brute instincts; the odious and tyrannical severity of the law; the
star chamber character of the indictment and the trial; the low partisanship of
the Judge; his coarse and indecent stump speech charge to the jury; the
determination of the District Attorney that none but a partisan jury should try
the case; the unmanly servility of the United States Marshal to the pleasure of
a malignant President; packing juries to indict and try; not trying a man by a
jury of his peers, but by a jury of known flunkies; his vanity which leads him
to aggravate the difficulty to magnify his own importance, and which endangers
a collision between the citizens and the Federal officers; the offensive
attempt to intimidate the citizens by a government war-vessel; all these, and
many other circumstances and considerations have combined to excite an
unprecedented feeling among the citizens of Northern Ohio, and make this question
by far the most important ever brought before the Supreme Court of this, or
perhaps any other State. Grave consequences hang on their decision. We are
confident that the question will receive that consideration which its
importance demands; that it will be decided strictly on legal principles, and
that the Court will shrink from no responsibility which duty involves. –